Hello and welcome to the Oster Home Update, COVID-19, a weekly podcast on the COVID-19

pandemic with Dr. Michael Oster Home. Dr. Oster Home is an internationally recognized

medical detective and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

or CITRAP at the University of Minnesota. In this podcast, Dr. Oster Home will draw on

more than 45 years of experience investigating infectious disease outbreaks to provide

straight talk on the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm Chris Doll, reporter for CITRAP News,

and I'm your host for these conversations.

As we come to the end of June, a summer that some had hoped would coincide with a reopening

of the country and maybe bring a bit of a respite from the COVID-19 pandemic is instead being

marked by a surge in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations around the country,

and in some states, a pause and reopening. In many parts of the country, this will be a quieter

than usual for the July. So we're going to spend this episode of the Oster Home Update,

talking about the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the US, where the nation is headed as a grapples

with the pandemic, what the game plan should be going forward, and how we can find ways to live

with the virus. But before we get to all of that, Mike, who are you dedicating this episode of the

podcast to? Thanks, Chris. It's great to be with you here today and with the audience. Thank you

for coming back to those listening to the podcast, having listened to it before, and welcome to

those who are listening to it for the first time. After thinking about this, my surprise dedication,

since I often share it with the CIDRAP staff beforehand, is in fact the CIDRAP staff.

I work in an incredible place with 27 people who are among the most dedicated, caring,

and brilliant people that I could ever imagine. The leadership of the center has now been together

for better part, each of us together for more than 35 years, and the people we have working on a

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